Feature

Why background checks should be customized

The degree of access to sensitive information necessitates that background screening should be customized for different positions, writes Sudipta Dev

Background checks have become mandatory in many organizations post 9/11 and increased risk of data thefts. They want to verify the history of the candidates they are in the process of hiring, for criminal checks and authenticity of CVs. After all, sensitive client information is at stake, any jeopardization of security will lead to loss of credibility for an organization and hit its business hard—perhaps never to recover.

Increasing security threats have necessitated detailed background checks for different positions according to their access to sensitive information. This involves looking beyond the usual categorization of education, work experience and address verification. Said Ashish Dehade, Managing Director-West Asia, First Advantage, “In view of heightened security concerns, both at organizational and national levels, our recommendation at any point of time would be to go in for as comprehensive a background check as possible on all candidates. The relevancy (or customization) of the information, thus plays a major role in hiring decisions.” This ‘relevancy’ consequently, is a value-add to any ‘normal’ background check.

Need for verification

Fudging of CVs is a common phenomenon in all industries. Professionals lie about their education, exaggerate their job responsibilities, provide fake credentials, try to hide job gaps, etc. Common excuses for career breaks are—long illnesses, recovery from accident, fake experience of working abroad, and sometimes even maternal leaves. “10-12 percent of the recruits submit fake CVs, reference letter or certificates, or simply overstate skills and experience. Due to this, concerns about data security and desire for high integrity among the workforce are driving Indian companies to seek the services of verification agencies,” stated B S Sheshadri, CEO, Contactx Resource Management.

The verification is mostly done for middle and top management positions to reduce bad hiring decisions. Some companies however insist on verifying the background of every candidate that it hires—from a peon to a CEO.

Customized checks

The more sensitive a job is the more stringent is the screening process. Customization of background checks is thus a necessity for many organizations and enables focused hiring.

The basic parameters being checks on education, professional experience and skills, the questions vary depending on the role of the candidate. “Employees in junior management need attitudes and skills different from the skills needed at middle management and top positions; hence questions posed to referees need to be customized thus,” explained Ajay Trehan, CEO, AuthBridge.

The checks vary as per the position of the candidate. Dehade gives the following examples:

• At entry-level, candidates may only have their last/highest educational qualification, current address, drug and criminal checks (at one or more addresses) conducted;
• For candidates at relatively senior levels, checks such as more than one education, all addresses for the last five/seven years, drug tests, criminal checks at addresses for five/seven years, regulatory and compliance database checks and employment checks for the period are conducted.

This customization evidently has intrinsic advantages—it allows access to maximum information about the candidate and ensures that only the right person is hired for the position. It leaves out any doubts of duplicity that might arise due to generic information gathering. “Customization of checks makes the verification definitely more relevant and hence a more powerful tool for hiring decisions,” stated Trehan.

Business of screening

The background screening industry is bound to grow as more business from Fortune 500 companies grow in India. “More than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a formal policy of background screening their employees. As these companies set up base in India, they will continue with their policy of screening their employees,” said Dehade, adding that background screening has become part of the standard outsourcing contract and therefore Indian companies will continue to proactively adopt it as part of their business process.

There are however still many organizations who think background screening is an extra cost to the hiring process, not realizing the gravity of the risk they might be taking in making a wrong hiring decision—from the point of security as well as a wrong investment made on the individual. A lot is put at stake—from the reputation of the company to its existence. “Brand equity and brand value can be very adversely impacted if it is known that an organization did not do enough due diligence before recruiting a certain individual with questionable background. Thus, lack of background screening or even less number of checks conducted on current or potential employees is something that would come back to haunt any organization—through reduced business, inability to retain better employees and have adverse impact on its public perception,” stated Dehade.

Companies in India lack access to centralized data like the social security number in the US. Sheshadri pointed out that Nasscom has come up with a centralized database of employees of IT/BPO, in association with National Security Depository, to verify employee credentials and work experience.

An organization should well propagate the fact that it will not hire an individual without thorough background check. It acts as a deterrent for the wrong person to even apply for the position once he knows that the company does stringent verification. Thus saving the organization investment in time and money on the hiring process by keeping out fraudulent individuals altogether.

sudipta.dev@expressindia.com